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I love to knit self-striping socks because they look beautiful and the yarn does all the hard work! I tend to collect a lot of self striping sock yarns because they are so pretty and useful to have on hand. My favorite is Knit Picks Felici because it’s so affordable, but every now and then it’s fun to splurge on a specialty skein which I what I did with this yarn by Abi Grasso. I used to love this Black Jack gum when I was a kid and I just couldn’t resist the nostalgia.
Self-Striping Sock Heel Options
There are a lot of patterns for self-striping sock yarn out there but my absolute favorite self-striping sock pattern is the sock surgeon’s afterthought heel. I won’t attempt to count how many pairs I have made, but it’s a LOT!
The afterthought heel may seem a little intimidating, but it is absolutely the only way to really show off the beauty of self-striping yarn. Any other kind of heel will interrupt the stripe pattern because it changes the stitch count.*
Here is an example of a pair of self-striping socks I made with a heel flap and gusset before I learned the afterthought heel technique:
Looking at the heel above, you can see how you end up with super skinny stripes around the gusset area? And it can also mess up the color sequences as well. (P.S. this pattern is called Jaywalker and you can knit it with an afterthought heel if you plan ahead a bit!)
*I inserted a little asterisk in my comment above because there is technically one other heel option that works: you can stop knitting with the self-striping yarn and then knit a short-row heel in a complementary solid yarn, then resume knitting with the self-striping yarn. This method also avoids messing with the stripe pattern, but you need to buy a second skein of yarn and you don’t get the awesome bullseye effect that you get with an afterthought heel:
Now, since I shelled out like $40 for the yarn, I’m gonna milk these photos for all they’re worth and show you another picture of these beauties before I share my project notes! 😍
Also, I have another post on self-striping sock yarn that includes a trick for how to make sure the stripes match, if you’re interested.
yarn details
Abbi Grasso Self-Striping Sock in Black Jack
Fingering Weight
75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon
Machine Wash & Air Dry
100 g / 460 yd skein
Purchased in July 2020 @ $32 + shipping
project details
pattern: “Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel” by Emily B Miller (video tutorial with link to pdf in the comments)
size knit: CO 64 Stitches
needles: US size 1.5 (2.5 mm), wood DPNs (Sunstruck for the win!)
gauge: 9 stitches and 12 rows per inch in stockinette (blocked)
yarn used: 322 yards (70 grams)
finished size: Back of Heel to Tip of Toe: 9.25”, Top of Cuff to Bottom of Heel: 9.25”, Circumference: ~7”; Heel/Toe: ~1.5”
duration: August 2021-June 2022 (they didn’t actually take a year to knit! I just had them sitting around for a while before I popped the heels in!)
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